Technology Design Challenge to Promote Top Performing Pellet Stoves
A yearlong project to test and assess pellet stoves is entering its first phase this summer. This first phase focuses on the most popular pellet stoves in North America and aims to help consumers identify the most efficient stoves and how best to operate them.
(The Pellet Stove Design Challenge is now accepting applications for innovative pellet stoves and individual participants at the April 2016 Workshop.)
(The Pellet Stove Design Challenge is now accepting applications for innovative pellet stoves and individual participants at the April 2016 Workshop.)
The initiative is being led by the Alliance for Green Heat with a wide group of partner organizations and stove experts. Pellet stoves are increasingly popular in North America and Europe, are far cleaner than wood stoves and have enormous potential to replace fossil heating fuel.
2013 Design Challenge in Wash. DC |
Ben Myren, Tom Butcher and others in a lab at Brookhaven at the 2014 Wood Stove Design Challenge |
Phase one: Testing of Popular Pellet Stoves
There are approximately one million pellet stoves in North America. Unlike the wood stove market, which has many manufacturers, most pellet stoves are made by just a handful of companies. The Alliance will independently test some of the most popular models made in North America and Europe for emissions and efficiency. The first round of tests will follow EPA lab testing protocols, while the second round will approximate how some consumers might use the stoves to better understand the range in efficiency when stoves are burned clean as well as dirty. We will also test the stoves for noise level and ease of cleaning and repair. We may also test heat output and efficiency differences using high and low quality pellets.
Prior to both rounds of testing, the Alliance will explain what test methods and procedures are to be used and seek input from industry and other stakeholders. Testing will begin in an EPA accredited test lab and then move to Brookhaven National Lab. The project expects to produce some data about the variability and reproducibility of emissions and efficiency in pellet stove testing.
To get better baseline data on some popular stoves, the Alliance for Green Heat submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requestto the EPA asking for emission and efficiency data for each of the four tested burn rates. The Alliance also asked for moisture and ash content of the pellets used in the certification tests. The EPA provided some of the data but issued a partial denial for efficiency values, pending a process to see whether the stove manufacturers will challenge the release of that information.
Funding for the ongoing Wood Stove Design Challenge initiative has been provided by the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA), Osprey Foundation, the US Forest Service and the Alliance for Green Heat.
Funding for the ongoing Wood Stove Design Challenge initiative has been provided by the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA), Osprey Foundation, the US Forest Service and the Alliance for Green Heat.
More information about this yearlong project will be posted on our website, blog, Facebook page and monthly newsletter.
Technology Design Challenge to Promote Top Performing Pellet Stoves
Reviewed by Mr X
on
June 23, 2015
Rating:
No comments: